//------------------------------// // Chapter 75 // Story: The Mask Makes the Pony // by kudzuhaiku //------------------------------// The hospital room was dim, but not dark. Flicker lay in the bed, groggy, with Spud curled up in a ball beside him. Some kind soul had stitched his cat back together and had allowed him to stay. At the foot of the bed was a table, and upon the table, two weapons rested. One was Heartfinder, the other was Doctor Sterling’s silver rapier. Both had somehow survived the explosion, but it wasn’t all that surprising, as they were magical weapons. Flicker could now feel his back half, and wished that he couldn’t. Everything from the middle of his spine downward throbbed in the most unpleasant way imaginable, due to his bruised and swollen spinal cord. His injuries were extensive, and Flicker couldn’t remember them all. The only thing he knew was, he should be dead. Ponies weren’t supposed to survive in his state. Worse than the pain, there had been no news. No nothing. Just a few doctors and nurses here and there, and nopony told him anything at all. There was no sign of his parents. Drugged as he was, he couldn’t sleep, and his keen sense of worry gnawed at his consciousness. Lifting a foreleg, he gave Spud a gentle nudge on a place that he hoped wasn’t too bad off. “You look like you had a rough day, Spud.” Flicker’s voice was gritty and his damaged larynx ached. “Meow.” Spud’s response sounded half-awake, and the mutant cat was clearly in considerable pain. “I’m sorry, Spud, go back to sleep.” Hearing a click from the door, Flicker’s magic wrapped around the two naked blades at the end of the bed, on the table. The scabbards were nowhere to be found. At the moment, Flicker was just a bit paranoid, and who could blame him? Both of the silver weapons glowed with a faint light, which reflected in Flicker’s glassy-eyed stare. “Flicker… put those down. I really don’t want to get stabbed any more today.” Squinting, Flicker’s blurry vision made out White Pepper, one of his teachers, one of his instructors, one of his trusted masters. The two weapons clattered back down to the table and clanged against one another. The colt watched as Mister Pepper approached his bed, and the stallion looked pretty bad off. His head was covered in bandages, obscuring one eye and one ear. Around his neck was a thick bandage, and all four of his legs were wrapped in gauze as well. “I’m doing my rounds… checking on what’s left of my students.” Mister Pepper’s voice cracked from grief. “Most of ‘em aren’t expected to make it through the night.” “Mister Pepper—” “Call me White, Son.” “White…” The familiarity was comforting for Flicker. He reached out his hoof as the older stallion approached his bed and it came to rest against Mister Pepper’s shoulder. “How bad was it? How many of us are left?” “Son, you don’t want to know that right now,” Mister Pepper replied. “I need to know,” Flicker begged, sounding very much like a colt requesting ice cream. “As of right now, twenty six students, including you, survived, but like I said, most aren’t expected to make it through the night.” Mister Pepper’s voice became a weak, pained whisper. “Aren’t many of us left at the moment. Most of the masters have been killed. Wicked’s in a bad way, he’s gonna live, but he’s not gonna be the same. As for Mister Balister…” the words trailed off with an agonised gasp. “What about him?” “He refused Wicked’s order to give ground and instead chose to buy time for his students.” Mister White’s one visible eye blinked a few times. “The rats carved him apart and burned him with spellfire. The Rat Bastard… he got real smart and he led the attack inside our guild.” “Is he dead?” Flicker asked. “Mister Balister?” White Pepper winced. “No, but he should be. A long time ago, he donated his body to science so they could study long term effects of being exposed to disease and hardship. Right now, they’re rebuilding what’s left of him, the bloody scraps picked up off the floor. I don’t know how he lived.” Flicker closed his eyes, went limp, and sunk down into his pillow. He didn’t know how to take this news, and so he changed the subject. “Any word on Piper and Hennessy?” “Hennessy is back in surgery. He’s expected to live, but it’ll be a while before he recovers. If he hadn’t been rescued when he was… you might’ve lost your friend, Flicker.” White Pepper blinked a few times, then shook his head. “Piper is sleeping. They’re not sure about her odds of making it through the night. She’s been stabbed multiple times, and the poison did a lot of damage to her organs. Doctor told me her liver will never be the same, and she’ll lack some digestive enzymes she needs.” “She’ll be fine.” Flicker’s words didn’t comfort him as much as he hoped and he gritted his teeth because of how much the throbbing intensified in the lower half of his body. “I hope you are right, Flicker.” White Pepper let out a weary sigh. “I’d like to stay, but I must make my rounds. I must look after what few students I have left.” Opening his eyes, Flicker looked at the white and grey-dappled stallion beside his bed. “You should be in bed, White.” “No,” Mister Pepper replied. “No, I’m the only one who can get out of bed. I must do my rounds…” At some point, Flicker had fallen asleep without realising it, and he awoke to the sounds of hooves clattering against a tile floor. Two nurses as well as a doctor were beside his bed, and they began to check his vitals. The blanket was lifted, set aside, then there was a painful, burning sting when one of the nurses stabbed him with an enormous syringe, and Flicker turned his dull, glassy-eyed stare upon her. “That’s quite a cutie mark… a flaming rat skeleton,” the nurse remarked, her bubblegum scented breath washing over Flicker. “Just what we need for times like these. There’s been attacks all over the city.” He blinked a few times, trying to make sense of the words, the cloying scent of bubblegum lingering in his nostrils. His cutie mark was supposed to be a flaming rat, not a flaming rat skeleton. Grunting, squirming a bit, he wasn’t able to move enough to have a look for himself. The nurse placed a hoof on him to make him go still, so he did. There was no sense in struggling and making things worse. “My parents—” “Can’t make it,” the doctor said in a tired, but patient voice. “Nopony can make it. The skies are a no fly zone except for the military in both Ponyville and Canterlot right now. The trains are not running for fear of sabotage. Everything is on lockdown.” The mare blinked a few times as one of the nurses secured a blood pressure cuff around Flicker’s foreleg, and then she shook her head. “Your guild makes some tough ponies,” the doctor remarked, making a little conversation with her kind bedside manner. “You should be dead, Mister Nicker.” “I don’t have time to be dead, there’s rats to kill.” Flicker’s heavy stare came to rest upon the doctor. “I am going to do a purge, and Canterlot’s gutters will scab-over with blood.” Both of the nurses and the doctor shivered and all three suffered very visible shudders. “When I’m done in the streets, I’m going to go down into the dark of the Canterhorn and there is going to be a reckoning. When I’m done with all of the killing I’ve got planned, Tartarus will be the only place I’ll ever find welcome. And that’s just fine with me. Maybe I’ll find rats there, too.” In a hurry, the nurse wrote down Flicker’s blood pressure, then yanked the blood pressure cuff off of his foreleg. Trembling, she backed out of the room, her tail tucked tight between her legs, and vanished from view. The other nurse also wrote down a few things, doing so as fast as possible, then trotted away, shaking, her eyes wide with terror. The doctor shook her head, clucked her tongue, but said nothing as she too, turned to leave. How long had he been staring at the ceiling? He didn’t know. Flicker was suffering from a rare case of boredom. Under most circumstances, he could just zone out and not care, but right now, his brain was not having it. Somepony had left him a tray of food, but he hadn’t touched it, because he was too damn angry to eat. Spud was still curled up against his side, and still asleep. Something had changed between him and Spud, but Flicker couldn’t even begin to comprehend what it was, or what it might be. Every now and then, he had snatches of Spud’s thoughts flash through his mind, or worse, seeing what Spud saw in the guild during the pitched battle that had taken place there. His poor cat had seen some stuff. Reaching out with his mind, Flicker lifted Doctor Sterling’s rapier, wondering how somepony had found it in the rubble. He held it up in front of his muzzle to have a better look. It was, of course, undamaged and unblemished. Flicker didn’t have a good understanding of magical weapons, and he didn’t appreciate just how practical they were until now. Did the blade have a name? The colt didn’t know. Would he be allowed to keep it? Again, he didn’t know, but he pitied whoever tried to take it from him. Laying in bed, Flicker resolved that only death would take this blade from him. His vision blurred from tears and he allowed the flat of the chilly blade to come to rest against his snoot. In seconds, the silvered steel warmed and Flicker found comfort in the sensation. Once more, the door opened, and Flicker pulled Doctor Sterling’s sword away from his face. In the doorway, he saw a bandaged pony that it took him several seconds to recognise. He put the sword back down upon the table at the foot of his bed, and watched as Piper limped towards him. Much to his surprise, she lifted his blankets up, and then crawled into bed beside him. “I got scared, being by myself,” Piper said in a squeaky voice as she snuggled up against Flicker’s side, opposite of Spud. “I keep having bad dreams… terrible dreams.” The filly squirmed, trying to get closer to Flicker, and their many bandages rustled together beneath the blanket. “I couldn’t find Hennessy, I think he’s somewhere else in the hospital.” Flicker could feel Piper breathing on him, and that was reassuring somehow. She smelled of iodine and medicinal stink, a scent that tickled his nose. No doubt, he smelled that way himself, but he hadn’t noticed it. One thin foreleg came to rest atop Flicker’s barrel, and he found that he didn’t mind. “Do you think it’s over, Flicker?” Piper whispered. “The guild I mean… do you think they’ll send us home?” “Do you want to go home?” Turning his head a bit, Flicker looked down at Piper’s face and waited. “No.” Piper’s voice was a soft, almost unheard squeak. “No, as awful as everything is, I want to fight. I’m angry, Flicker, real angry. I’m scared too, but I’m afraid this anger is gonna stick with me for life. Doctor Sterling taught me magic…” Closing his eyes, Flicker dropped his guard and focused upon the sensation of Piper breathing against him. He hadn’t lost everything, and with luck, he still had Hennessy. Some of his seething rage subsided a bit, and he thought of love. He loved Piper, she was very dear to him, but he lacked the means to define their relationship. And, he supposed, he loved Hennessy, but that relationship was too confusing to sort out. Angling his head a bit, Flicker kissed Piper on top of her bandaged head, then allowed himself to sink back down into his pillow. After a moment, he lifted his head once more, tugged on his pillow, and pulled enough of it over that Piper had a little room to rest her head. She wiggled against him, careful, cautious, and then she too, had her head upon the pillow. Flicker watched her blink. “I was told my cutie mark changed,” Flicker said to Piper in a breathy whisper. “I don’t know what is going on. I also keep seeing what Spud saw in the guild… when the fighting was happening. Something is happening to me, Piper.” “We’ll figure it out, together,” Piper replied, and then she yawned. “I’m so tired, Flicker. Can you watch over me while I sleep?” “Of course, Piper.” “Thanks… you’re the best.” The filly closed her eyes, then slid her head over the pillow until her snoot was touching Flicker’s neck. “Whatever happens next, I’m with you. For better or for worse, I’m with you… forever. Later, I’ll make a Pinkie Promise, when I feel better.” “Get some rest, Piper.” Yawning, the filly nodded, closed her eyes, and cuddled up a little closer to Flicker, who had resumed staring up at the ceiling. For a moment, Piper’s horn, which was close to Flicker’s cheek, glowed and shot out a few sparks. Then, the filly’s magic was gone and the sparks were no more. “When we get a chance, I want to go back to your parents farm… I feel at home there.” “Sure thing, Piper.” Not long after Flicker had spoken these words, Piper, who was snuggled up against his side, went silent and still.